The Frequency of Stress Hyperglycemia in Hospitalized Patient Without a History of Diabetes

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of stress hyperglycemia in hospitalized patient without a history of diabetes. Material and methods: One hundred thirty seven patients admitted in ward, were selected in this cross-sectional study using non-probability consecutive sampling from department of medicine Nishtar Hospital Multan from March 2016 to April 2017 and SPSS - 20 was used to analyze the data. Results: Of these 137 study cases, 74 (54 %) were male patients while 63 (46 %) were females. Mean age of our study cases was 48.35 ± 12.11 years ranging from 22 to 78 years and majority of our study cases i.e. 89 (65 %) were aged more than 40 years of age. Of these 137 study cases, 60 (43.8%) were from rural areas while 77 (56.2%) were from urban areas. Mean body mass index (BMI) of our study cases was 23.54 ± 2.87 kg/m². Obesity was present in 19 (13.9 %) of our study cases while 80 (58.4%) were from poor families and 57 (41.6%) were from middle income background. Eighty seven (63.5%) were illiterate and 50 (36.5%) were literate. Family History of diabetes was present in 39 (28.5 %) of our study cases. Majority of our study cases i.e. 39 (28.5 %) presented with stroke followed by 33 (24.1%) patients with chronic liver diseases. Mean HbA1C was noted to be 5.01 ± 0.31 %; ranging from 4.6 % to 5.6%. Stress hyperglycemia was noted in 41 (29.9 %) of our study cases. Conclusion: Our study results have reported a high frequency of stress hyperglycemia in non – diabetic patients admitted to a medical ward. Stress hyperglycemia was significantly associated with male gender, increasing, obesity, family history of diabetes, presenting complaints and baseline HbA1C. Our study results suggest to monitor blood glucose levels of all non – diabetic patients admitted in medical wards to diagnose stress hyperglycemia which leads to poor clinical outcomes and high mortality if left untreated.

Keywords: Stress hyperglycemia, non – diabetic, frequency.